[bossa]

What happened with this lens? Was it repaired etc?

[Azzy]

I went to get the AF adjusted to my K5 body at pentax canada while I had warranty work done on the K-5. Received it a week ago still with same issue.
I dropped it off at suncamera (pentax authorized repairer in toronto), they said that it'll cost $190 to disassemble, check allignment and clean it. Still waiting for the seller to man up and accept return or pay at least half of repair.

[Azzy]

I hate taking the dispute on public but here goes my 2c hoping that no one else become victim of texdance.
I'm also disappointed with the decision of pentaxforum staff allowing the seller Texdance - View Profile - PentaxForums.com walk away, I don't care about the repair money anymore at this point but he should be allowed to sell in the forum anymore, marketplace should have more protection for the buyer.

Here goes the story from my side, if texdance wants to refute my side of the story he is free to do so

I bought a F*300mm and 1.7x TC from Texdance a month back MARKETPLACE AD.

I mentioned that I live and Canada and is willing to purchase his copy of F*300 and AF 1.7x TC and he replied in PM (please note the bolded part as it is important point in his argument why he won't refund me the lens)

I live in Reno, Texas in zip code 75462. I can ship anywhere the US Post Office says I can. Here's my best offer, which I think is a fairly good deal: the Pentax-F 1.7x AF Adapter and the Pentax F* 300/f4.5 both for $1175 plus shipping at my actual cost, no charge for packing. See USPS.com for rates to your location from my zip code 75462. I can't check myself because I don't have your address. United Parcel and FedEx are maybe no good - I've heard they charge a lot to go thru Canadian customs. Please determine the insured, tracked shipping cost or send me your address so I can check it myself. We can work out the dollar/loonie stuff; my daughter lives in Kitchener and if needed we can go through her bank. I've been selling off gear outside the US for years, from a tiny spy camera to Bosnia to a big 300/2.8 to England and even my giant Pentax FA* 600/f4 to Norway. Just say "go" and we can work out the details. Remember this F* 300/4.5 has the Pentax FA screw drive so your camera must have the FA drive pin.

I agreed at this point, replied to him asking to get me total for shipping and whether he can send it as a gift for me or use her daughter as middleman since with tax included the lens would be too expensive for me.

There is some thing wrong with this PM system. My last reply I said please send $1200 total for the F& 300/4.5 and F 1.7x AF Adapter. So then I will send to you as a gift if possible or use my daughter as middleman if necessary. So the total is $1200 including shipping. Pardon my delay in replies, I was out of town,

So as quoted from the beginning he AGREED either to use her daughter as middleman or sending it as a gift, he is also the one who set the price. (reply was 3 days late)

Now at this point texdance insisted that I have to send the money either using : Draft cheque (cost $15) or direct money transfer (cost $30 or 40 to do I don't remember) to his bank account out of my cost.
All of my email asking for other methods i.e western union, wire transfer were ignored. Including his original agreement to do transfer to her daughter.
Because it took him at least 1-3 days to reply to emails the deal were delayed for a little bit and tex offered to pay $15 for the draft cheque cost to complete the deal.

A week later tex mailed me complaining that the shipping charge too much ($40)....but wait a minute didn't tex himself checked and set the price himself ???? Nevertheless being a nice person I thanked him for honoring the deal

A few days later when I told him that the lens is defective Texdance flatly denied it and refused return (I also offered that we split the repair fee instead of just returning) claiming on the ground that he helped me with criminal act (funny how he never complained and agreed from the beginning to the so called "criminal act" instead of the alternative method) , paid for my money transfer (lol $15 out of $200 repair fee, thanks tex!) and giving me a lot of saving on shipping (AGAIN this is on a price he set himself from the beginning)....further on he accused me causing delay on the sale (I guess you forgot to mention the part where you take ages to respond there tex)

He also claimed that the lens could me misaligned during shipping, but still refused when I ask if we can involve insurance since they would cover it.

His final email to me:

Your complaint: a 30 year old Pentax lens you sent to a
Pentax site, and they of course say it can benifit from
a CLA - that is their bread and butter. So again I rate
your complaint Bogus - this is ordinary maintenance if
one wants a like-new lens. My rating fit the KEH
rating system for the optics - it had been examined by
a KEH buyer (I was selling gear a a camera show, and
have a KEH receipt) less than a month before shipment
to you. . The last thing I did before packing was again
examine the lens carefully from all angles and through
from both ends under good light. There were no visible
problems. I have 20/10 vision, much better than normal.

The actual email is too long to quote here but his argument points were what I already outlined above
He claimed that this is expected from my purchase and merely needed routine maintenance.....well if I had known that his definition of "EXCELLENT OPTICAL CONDITION" is this soft image without contrast and softer than my $100 tamron 70-300 plus $200 repair fee I would never touch it even with ten foot pole (I'm sure everyone would agree as well).

Don't believe me ? See and judge for yourself, included the cropped image

This set is from the f*300 all are shot wide open with shutter speed >= 1/500
https://picasaweb.google.com/110079302531460735200/Comparison
As comparison here are shots from 70-300 tamron and 55-300 pentax all wide open as well
https://picasaweb.google.com/110079302531460735200/Cheap300Zoom

IMO seeing these result WHY WOULD I PAY $850 for a lens that produce hazy image with no contrast, a lens that texdance claimed to be in excellent condition.

Anyways take all this with a grain of salt if you will, but I lost a lot of confidence in the protection for buyers in this marketplace

[dgaies]

Anyways take all this with a grain of salt if you will, but I lost a lot of confidence in the protection for buyers in this marketplace

Azzy, it's really unfortunate to read about what happened. I do quite a bit of buying and selling on here and would certainly characterize this transaction as the exception, not the rule.

I realize it's always easier to see these things in hindsight, but the first red flag for me, if I were buying from this seller, was their refusal to accept PayPal. I'm sure there are a lot of sellers who would prefer not to use PayPal, but when a seller with no feedback won't accept PayPal, walk away. The reason being, PayPal is [basically] the only way to get any level of buyer's protection when you get into situations like this. While I realize it's frustrating, there is no protection of any kind in the marketplace without it.

[Azzy]

Azzy, it's really unfortunate to read about what happened. I do quite a bit of buying and selling on here and would certainly characterize this transaction as the exception, not the rule.

I realize it's always easier to see these things in hindsight, but the first red flag for me, if I were buying from this seller, was their refusal to accept PayPal. I'm sure there are a lot of sellers who would prefer not to use PayPal, but when a seller with no feedback won't accept PayPal, walk away. The reason being, PayPal is [basically] the only way to get any level of buyer's protection when you get into situations like this. While I realize it's frustrating, there is no protection of any kind in the marketplace without it.

Hi dgaies, thanks for the words.
I was iffy in the beginning as well but he did have good ebay rating and seemed trustworthy.
No doubt from now on I will only do transaction with paypal, it's my own fault and I accept the consequence.
My disappointment is from pentaxforum's part, texdance should lose his privilege in selling/posting here, if not what is the point of marketplace rule and regulation. I will just take a profit here and there and absorb the negative comment every now and then

[Cambo]

I hate taking the dispute on public but here goes my 2c hoping that no one else become victim of texdance.
I'm also disappointed with the decision of pentaxforum staff allowing the seller Texdance - View Profile - PentaxForums.com walk away, I don't care about the repair money anymore at this point but he should be allowed to sell in the forum anymore, marketplace should have more protection for the buyer.

Here goes the story from my side, if texdance wants to refute my side of the story he is free to do so

I bought a F*300mm and 1.7x TC from Texdance a month back MARKETPLACE AD.

I mentioned that I live and Canada and is willing to purchase his copy of F*300 and AF 1.7x TC and he replied in PM (please note the bolded part as it is important point in his argument why he won't refund me the lens)



I agreed at this point, replied to him asking to get me total for shipping and whether he can send it as a gift for me or use her daughter as middleman since with tax included the lens would be too expensive for me.



So as quoted from the beginning he AGREED either to use her daughter as middleman or sending it as a gift, he is also the one who set the price. (reply was 3 days late)

Now at this point texdance insisted that I have to send the money either using : Draft cheque (cost $15) or direct money transfer (cost $30 or 40 to do I don't remember) to his bank account out of my cost.
All of my email asking for other methods i.e western union, wire transfer were ignored. Including his original agreement to do transfer to her daughter.
Because it took him at least 1-3 days to reply to emails the deal were delayed for a little bit and tex offered to pay $15 for the draft cheque cost to complete the deal.

A week later tex mailed me complaining that the shipping charge too much ($40)....but wait a minute didn't tex himself checked and set the price himself ???? Nevertheless being a nice person I thanked him for honoring the deal

A few days later when I told him that the lens is defective Texdance flatly denied it and refused return (I also offered that we split the repair fee instead of just returning) claiming on the ground that he helped me with criminal act (funny how he never complained and agreed from the beginning to the so called "criminal act" instead of the alternative method) , paid for my money transfer (lol $15 out of $200 repair fee, thanks tex!) and giving me a lot of saving on shipping (AGAIN this is on a price he set himself from the beginning)....further on he accused me causing delay on the sale (I guess you forgot to mention the part where you take ages to respond there tex)

He also claimed that the lens could me misaligned during shipping, but still refused when I ask if we can involve insurance since they would cover it.

His final email to me:

The actual email is too long to quote here but his argument points were what I already outlined above
He claimed that this is expected from my purchase and merely needed routine maintenance.....well if I had known that his definition of "EXCELLENT OPTICAL CONDITION" is this soft image without contrast and softer than my $100 tamron 70-300 plus $200 repair fee I would never touch it even with ten foot pole (I'm sure everyone would agree as well).

Don't believe me ? See and judge for yourself, included the cropped image

This set is from the f*300 all are shot wide open with shutter speed >= 1/500
https://picasaweb.google.com/110079302531460735200/Comparison
As comparison here are shots from 70-300 tamron and 55-300 pentax all wide open as well
https://picasaweb.google.com/110079302531460735200/Cheap300Zoom

IMO seeing these result WHY WOULD I PAY $850 for a lens that produce hazy image with no contrast, a lens that texdance claimed to be in excellent condition.

Anyways take all this with a grain of salt if you will, but I lost a lot of confidence in the protection for buyers in this marketplace

The chassis of that lens CAN become unscrewed itself when unscrewing the fixed hood. This has happened several times to mine and will cause optical problems because of the distance to the elements. Check to see that it is fully screwed together about halfway down the barrel of the lens.

Cheers,
Cameron

[RobA_Oz]

The chassis of that lens CAN become unscrewed itself when unscrewing the fixed hood. This has happened several times to mine and will cause optical problems because of the distance to the elements. Check to see that it is fully screwed together about halfway down the barrel of the lens.

Cheers,
Cameron

Do you mean by that, that this can happen without any noticeable exterior sign? I wouldn't have thought so, but I picked up a copy from Matsuiya Store recently, and I've noticed a fair bit of flare, although all the lens surfaces look OK, and the joints appear tight from the outside.

[photocanadian]

I have a feeling the lens has an internal problem - any fuzzies inside (visible when shining a flashlight inside)?

These are roughly 50% crops, mostly wide open on a F*300/4.5. This lens continues to surprise me.

[RobA_Oz]

I noticed the problem on the first day I had the F*300, but I can't reproduce it now. I can only guess it was some condensation on one of the lens surfaces. Now I've had more time to explore the lens further, and a few days later, it seems to be producing the sort of IQ others have said it's capable of - bit of a relief, really. Thanks for the hints, anyway.

[Cambo]

Do you mean by that, that this can happen without any noticeable exterior sign? I wouldn't have thought so, but I picked up a copy from Matsuiya Store recently, and I've noticed a fair bit of flare, although all the lens surfaces look OK, and the joints appear tight from the outside.

but you will see exposed threads. And it looks like he just had a condensation problem, so his images should look like this soon:



as long as he see a tripod, and mirror lockup.

Cheers,
Cameron

[zapp]

Take images of non-moving object. Make sure your tripod can support the lens! Most tripods will not support a lens with this angle of view - use fast shutter speed. Make sure to check for fraon/backfocus issues.

[Azzy]

The chassis of that lens CAN become unscrewed itself when unscrewing the fixed hood. This has happened several times to mine and will cause optical problems because of the distance to the elements. Check to see that it is fully screwed together about halfway down the barrel of the lens.

Cheers,
Cameron

its still on repair, 3 weeks in